Furniture guard



June 29,1965

E. w. MQBROOM 3,191,811

FURNITURE GUARD Filed May 9, 1963 INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,191,811 FURNITURE GUARD Elmer W. McBroom, Range Lane Road, Covington, La. Filed May 9, 1963, Ser. No. 279,082

2 Claims. (Cl. 222-192) g This invention relates to furniture guards and more particularly comprises a novelty item designed to serve both as a standard container for a wide variety of hO1lS1 hold items and as a guard for preventing contact between the walls of a room and the furniture in it.

Wall and furniture guards are time tested devices whose attributes require no elaboration. One important object of this invention is to provide .a container primarily designed to hold consumable goods such as beverages, polishes and detergents, which when consumed allow the container to be placed on the door to prevent furniture from sliding into the walls of the room. This novel concept may obviously be used effectively to promote the sale of the packaged goods and provide a dividend to the customer by enabling him to derive a secondary benefit from his purchase.

To accomplish that and other objects this invention includes among its features a container having an opening at one end through which the contents of the container may be discharged. The container is provided with a stopper removably mounted in the opening, that serves to seal the container closed and prevents its contents from spilling. The container includes means which may be in the form of a yoke for securing the container to a furniture leg when the container is placed on its side and acts as a bumper to engage a wall of the room in which the furniture is used before the furniture back can contact the wall. Thus, the container serves .as a guard for preventing the furniture and Wall from marring one another.

These and other objects and features of this invention will be better understood and appreciated from the following detailed description of several embodiments thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a container and cover constructed in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the container shown in PIG. 1 lying on its side and employed as a furniture and wall guard; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of a slight modification of the container shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

In FIG. 1 a container is shown which may be made from glass, ceramic, metal, rubber, plastic or some other comparable material. The container has a cover 12, and an interior chamber in which it carries its contents, and the container is of course made of a material compatable with its contents. Preferably the container is made of a resilient plastic such as polyethylene and typically is blow-molded as :a conventional squeeze bottle. The container may be of the type in which such consumable goods as beverages, tonics, liquid detergents, polishes, insecticides, etc., are sold. For convenience the bottom 14 of the container is flat and the container is provided with at least one relatively flat side wall. The container shown is provided with two flat walls 16 and 18, and the opening 20 through which the contents are dispensed is conventionally provided at the top of the container. Preferably the opening 21} is rectangular in cross section or some other shape that requires a specific orientation for the cover 12 when it is inserted in the opening 26.

The cover 12 includes a stem 22 which conforms in cross-sectional shape to the opening 20 and fits within the opening 20 to seal the container closed. The stem 22 if made of other than a resilient material, may be provided with an outer skin of yieldable material such as 3,191,811 Patented June 29, 1965 cork or plastic so that it. will effectively seal the opening 20 in the container 10. The cover 12 also includes a handle 24 in the form of a yoke having a pair of arms 26 and 28 disposed generally parallel to one another. One function of the handle is to provide a convenient means for removing the stem 22 from the opening 20 in the container. The handle 24 and stem 22 may be integrally formed and customarily are made of the same material as the container 10. Thus, if the container is as preferred a plastic squeeze bottle type of container having resilient walls, the cover 12 may be made of a plastic material, although perhaps somewhat more rigid than the container.

As is evident from an inspection of FIG. 1 the container .10 with its cover 12 may be used conventionally as a holder for any of the goods noted and may be any one of many different attractive designs. However, when the contents of the container are dissipated the container 10 and cover 12 in combination have a secondary use. This use is suggested in FIG. 2. In that figure the container .10 is shown disposed on its side- 16, and the cover 12 -is conventionally positioned with its stem 22 in the opening 20 of the container. The arms 26 and 28 of the yoke-shaped handle 24 straddle one rear leg 30 of chair 32, and it is to be understood that a second identical container with its own cover is to be used with the other rear leg 34 suggested in FIG. 2. In the position shown in FIG. 2 the container 10 and cover 12 serveas a guard to prevent the back of the chair 32 from marring the wall 36 against which the bottom 14 of the container bears. That is, they serve as a bumper to prevent the chair 32 from bumping against the wall.

As suggested above, at least one wall of the container 10 is flat and that wall serves as a support for the container on the floor 38. In the absence of -a flat wall the container would not lie steadily on its side when placed on the -fioor to function as a guard. By making the opening 20 rectangular or some other shape which requires a specific orientation for the cover with respect to the container, when the cover 12 is placed with its stem in the opening 20 proper positioning of the handle 24 with respect to the floor is assured. That is, if the opening is not circular or an equilateral polygon, insertion of the stem 22 in the opening 21 will require the arms 26 and 28 of the yoke-shaped handle to lie in a plane parallel to the plane of the flat side wall 16 so that the arms 26 and 23 will straddle the furniture leg when the container is placed with its side horizontal.

:If the container 11 is made of other than a yieldable material such as plastic, preferably its bottom wall '14 will carry a resilient pad 40 as suggested in FIG. 2 to cushion the bottom wall 14 of the container against the wall 36. it may also be desirable in certain applications to provide the wall 16 of the container with a layer of skid resistant material such as rubber to provide some stability to the position of the chair 32. Thus, if the side wall 16 of the container is provided with a rubber coating 42 as suggested in FIG. 2, the container 10 may prevent the chair or other furniture from sliding about on the floor. That is, it may serve other than as a mere bumper or guard to prevent the furniture from contacting the wall but rather may serve to hold the article in a fixed position on the floor and prevent it from contacting other articles of furniture normally disposed adjacent to it.

In FIG. 3 a slight modification of the container is shown. [In that embodiment the bottom wall 50 of the container along at least one of its flat sides is provided with a quarter round recess .54 which allows the container to be used in a dwelling in which the base of the walls at the floor are provided with a quarter round molding '56 as suggested in the drawing. The recess 54 allows the "ice bottom Wall 50 of the container to engage the wall 53 without tipping upwardly to .ride over the quarter round molding 56. In the embodiment of FIG. 3, because the container 52 has two flat sides 60 and 62, each of which may suitably be disposed with its face against the floor, quarter round recesses 54 are provided at the bottom of each of the flat sides at the bottom wall 50.

From the foregoing description it will be appreciated that numerous modifications may be made of this invention without departing from its spirit. Therefore, it is not intended that the breadth of this invention be limited to the specific embodiments illustrated and described. Rather, it is intended that the scope of this invention be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:

1. A container comprising a hollow bottle-type body having a flat bottom and at least one flat side joined at a corner,

a recess provided along the corner for enabling that corner to straddle a molding stripat the junction of 20 a Wall and floor when the body lies on the flat side,

an opening for discharging the contents of the bottle- 1 type body, said opening being noncircular in cross section, a stopper for said body having va stem with the same cross section as the opening and removably disposed in the opening for sealing the interior of the body, the cross-sectional shape of the stem and opening requiring that the stopper be mounted on the body in a particular orientation With'i-espect to the body,

and a pair of'spaced apart arms forming part of the stopper and lying in a plane parallel to the flat side of the body when the. stopper is mounted on the body, said arms being adapted to straddle the sides 10 of a furniture leg when the bottle is disposed on its (fiat side. 2. A container asdefined in claim 1 further characterized by said body being made of a flexible plastic material.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,492,422 4/24 Carter 215100 X 2,194,073 3/40 Jackson 24255 2,672,875 3/54 Kovacs 22-2191 X 2,936,932 5/60 Whisler 222-490 X 2,980,299 4/61 Smith 222394 3,107,033 10/63 Sandborn 222--505 X LOUIS J. 'DEMBO, Examiner. 

1. A CONTAINER COMPRISING A HOLLOW BOTTLE-TYPE BODY HAVING A FLAT BOTTOM AND AT LEAST ONE FLAT SIDE JOINED AT A CORNER, A RECESS PROVIDED ALONG THE CORNER FOR ENABLING THAT CORNER TO STRADDLE A MOLDING STRIP AT THE JUNCTION OF A WALL AND FLOOR WHEN THE BODY LIES ON THE FLAT SIDE AN OPENING FOR DISCHARGING THE CONTENTS OF THE BOTTLETYPE BODY, SAID OPENING BEING NONCIRCULAR IN CROSS SECTION, A STOPPER FOR SAID BODY HAVING A STEM WITH THE SAME CROSS SECTION AS THE OPENING AND REMOVABLY DISPOSED IN THE OPENING FOR SEALING THE INTERIOR OF THE BODY, THE CROSS-SECTIONAL SHAPE OF THE STEM AND OPENING REQUIRING THAT THE STOPPER BE MOUNTED ON THE BODY IN A PARTICULAR ORIENTATION WITH RESPECT TO THE BODY, AND A PAIR OF SPACED APART ARMS FORMING PART OF THE STOPPER AND LYING IN A PLANE PARALLEL TO THE FLAT SIDE OF THE BODY WHEN THE STOPPER IS MOUNTED ON THE BODY, SAID ARMS BEING ADAPTED TO STRADDLE THE SIDES OF A FURNITURE LEG WHEN THE BOTTLE IS DISPOSED ON ITS FLAT SIDE. 